SPECTRAL LAYERS FILTER IN AUDIO & MUSIC LAB PREMIUM: WORTH IT?

creativeforge wrote on 8/15/2017, 6:56 PM

There is a 60% discount for AUDIO & MUSIC LAB PREMIUM till tomorrow. http://www.magix.com/ca/audio-cleaning-lab/audio-music-lab-premium/ I'm wondering if I should spring for it (I am coming from SoundForge 7.0

'd like to know from users if the Spectral Layers Filter in AUDIO & MUSIC LAB PREMIUM is truly effective for music mastering? I could not find a comparison chart. I read on the forum that some are disappointed by the new version included in budget-priced versions of the software, as it seems like it has been stripped of more powerful features.

Are these features gone for good, or has MAGIX packaged the more desirable and powerful version in a separate or higher-priced version of SoundForge? I have Sound Forge Audio Studio 10.0.

Comments

browj2 wrote on 8/15/2017, 10:23 PM

Hi,

I am one that has been warning people, particularly those who had Audio Cleaning Lab and wanted to upgrade when a newer version was released, that Magix created two version - Audio Cleaning Lab (ACL) and Audio & Music Lab Premium (AML). The fully adjustable effects in the version of ACL prior to AML continued in AML but were dumbed down in ACL. AML has a VST2 interface, ACL does not. Users who upgraded to ACL instead of AML discovered that they had downgraded.

Spectral cleaning was another tool that did not go into ACL but only with AML. To clarify what you indicated, it is called Spectral Cleaning, not Spectral Layers Filter. I think that Magix just added this same Spectral Cleaning tool to SoundForge Audio Studio 12 that was released recently. It works very well for removing sound blemishes, not continuous noise, but a scratch, handclap, squeak, pop, door closing and other sudden noises, at the same time leaving other sounds, like music intact.

I have both AML and Sound Forge Pro 11. They probably do much the same, but I am used to AML for cleaning and for recording from old tapes and records and cleaning them up. As well, I use it for cleaning and mastering sound from my videos. Since it has 4 tracks, it is easy to bring in a video and record a voice over and line it up, do any cleaning up, normalizing, compressing, EQing, ducking, etc., and sending the result back to the video program.

AML also has 6 essentialFX's, a collection of first-class effect plug-ins taken directly from the field of professional audio. I used eFX VocalStrip mostly.

I suggest that you download, install and try out the trial version quickly to see if this is for you. Magix has a 30-day return period if you do buy and don't like it.

For me, I think that the price is excellent. It's presently on sale for 10$ less than ACL, which is amazing.

However, this may be the last version and Magix may be concentrating on the Sound Forge products, time will tell. You may want to compare AML with SF Audio Studio 12 and then decide. For me, it looks like SF AS12 is similar to AML. AML does not need th iZotope Ozone Elements (lite) that is with SF AS12, as Magix already has similar tools and effects included.

The one thing that AML does not do that I would like, is to be able to record a voiceover while playing back a video, like I can in Movie Edit Pro or Video Pro X. Right now, I do the voice over in the video editor and then export only the voiceover for cleaning, bring it back into the video editor for mixing and mastering. Or I also export the rest of the audio from the video, with or without the video, and import both tracks into AML for cleaning, mixing and mastering. It would be easier to do it all in one place, like all in AML.

But for the price, wow!

It would have been good if you had indicated what you need the program for or what it is that you do. Then we could guide you better.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

creativeforge wrote on 2/23/2021, 5:43 AM

Hi,

I am one that has been warning people, particularly those who had Audio Cleaning Lab and wanted to upgrade when a newer version was released, that Magix created two version - Audio Cleaning Lab (ACL) and Audio & Music Lab Premium (AML). The fully adjustable effects in the version of ACL prior to AML continued in AML but were dumbed down in ACL. AML has a VST2 interface, ACL does not. Users who upgraded to ACL instead of AML discovered that they had downgraded.

Spectral cleaning was another tool that did not go into ACL but only with AML. To clarify what you indicated, it is called Spectral Cleaning, not Spectral Layers Filter. I think that Magix just added this same Spectral Cleaning tool to SoundForge Audio Studio 12 that was released recently. It works very well for removing sound blemishes, not continuous noise, but a scratch, handclap, squeak, pop, door closing and other sudden noises, at the same time leaving other sounds, like music intact.

I have both AML and Sound Forge Pro 11. They probably do much the same, but I am used to AML for cleaning and for recording from old tapes and records and cleaning them up. As well, I use it for cleaning and mastering sound from my videos. Since it has 4 tracks, it is easy to bring in a video and record a voice over and line it up, do any cleaning up, normalizing, compressing, EQing, ducking, etc., and sending the result back to the video program.

AML also has 6 essentialFX's, a collection of first-class effect plug-ins taken directly from the field of professional audio. I used eFX VocalStrip mostly.

I suggest that you download, install and try out the trial version quickly to see if this is for you. Magix has a 30-day return period if you do buy and don't like it.

For me, I think that the price is excellent. It's presently on sale for 10$ less than ACL, which is amazing.

However, this may be the last version and Magix may be concentrating on the Sound Forge products, time will tell. You may want to compare AML with SF Audio Studio 12 and then decide. For me, it looks like SF AS12 is similar to AML. AML does not need th iZotope Ozone Elements (lite) that is with SF AS12, as Magix already has similar tools and effects included.

The one thing that AML does not do that I would like, is to be able to record a voiceover while playing back a video, like I can in Movie Edit Pro or Video Pro X. Right now, I do the voice over in the video editor and then export only the voiceover for cleaning, bring it back into the video editor for mixing and mastering. Or I also export the rest of the audio from the video, with or without the video, and import both tracks into AML for cleaning, mixing and mastering. It would be easier to do it all in one place, like all in AML.

But for the price, wow!

It would have been good if you had indicated what you need the program for or what it is that you do. Then we could guide you better.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

My apologies, went through a divorce 2016 to 2018 and it sucked all my energy. I'm back now trying to get going again in making music. I've been using Mixcraft for the past 3 years and now I'm looking into Acid.

Thanks for your detailed help, very sorry I didn't see it earlier!

Regards,

Andre